412 



INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 



short, to which man has but just attained after some thousand 

 years of painful research, having escaped all the observers of 

 bees from Aristomachus to Swammerdam and Reaumur of 

 modern times. We have no other alternative, then, but to 

 refer this phenomenon to the extraordinary development of a 

 new instinct suited for the exigency, however incomprehen- 

 sible to us the manner of its excitement may appear. 



II. Such, then, are the exquisiteness, the number, and the 

 extraordinary development of the instincts of insects. But is 

 instinct the sole guide of their actions ? Are they in every 

 case the blind agents of irresistible impulse ? These queries, 

 I have already hinted, cannot in my opinion be replied to in 

 the affirmative ; and I now proceed to show that though in- 

 stinct is the chief guide of insects, they are endowed also with 

 no inconsiderable portion of reason. 



Some share of reason is denied by few philosophers of 

 the present day to the larger animals. But its existence has 

 not generally (except by those who reject instinct altogether) 

 been recognised in insects : probably on the ground that, as 

 the proportions of reason and of instinct seem to coexist in 

 an inverse ratio, the former might be expected to be extinct 

 in a class in which the latter is found in such perfection. 

 This rule, however, though it may hold good in man, 

 whose instincts are so few and imperfect, and whose reason 

 is so pre-eminent, is far from being confirmed by an ex- 

 tended survey of the classes of animals generally. Many 

 quadrupeds, birds, and fishes, with instincts apparently not 

 very acute, do not seem to have their place supplied by a 

 proportionably superior share of reason; and insects, as I 

 think the facts I have to adduce will prove, though ranking 

 so low in the scale of creation, seem to enjoy as great a degree 

 of reason as many animals of the superior classes, yet in com- 

 bination with instincts much more numerous and exquisite. 



I must premise, however, that in so perplexed and intricate 

 a field, I am sensible- how necessary it is to tread with caution. 

 A far greater collection of facts must be made, and the science 

 of metaphysics generally be placed on a more solid foundation 

 than it now can boast, before we can pretend to decide, in 



